Page 3195 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 23 August 2017
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(iii) promote local employment; and
(2) further notes that the Government:
(a) remains committed to these principles of protecting the health and safety of Canberra workers, and ensuring government procurement is conducted in an accountable manner; and
(b) will bring forward legislation to establish a Local Jobs Code within 12 months, which will ensure procurement decisions deliver better outcomes for Canberra workers by requiring employers to adopt the highest ethical, safety and labour standards.”.
As ACT Labor leader, I am very proud of the union movement’s long and established links with the Labor Party. We are Australia’s oldest political party. The clue to our fundamental beliefs in the value of fairness in the workplace and our commitment to workers is in the name of the party, the Labor Party, as opposed to those opposite, whose name completely belies their outlook on public policy in this country. You are not liberal; you are conservative, and you should change your name to reflect that. Cory Bernardi got it right.
But, Madam Speaker, I digress. The established links between the union movement and the Labor Party have been a feature of the history of the Labor Party going back over more than a century. Those links have made Australia one of the best and safest places to work in the world. The ACT government is committed to fairness within the workplace for all workers, and will continue to promote this throughout government policy.
The government, through infrastructure, finance and capital works, takes into account information from many stakeholders when assessing tenders. This is good governance. Consultation with unions makes up a small component of this. Consultation with industry representative bodies makes up a larger component of this.
The current MOU does not give UnionsACT any power of veto over procurement decisions. It simply does not. The government is committed to all procurement activity, including fair consideration of the rights of workers, in addition to ensuring that providers are accountable to the public, promote quality and promote local employment.
The government remains committed to these principles. We will legislate a local jobs code which will deliver better outcomes for Canberra’s workers by encouraging employers to adopt the highest ethical and labour standards. We are committed to protecting the health and safety of Canberra’s workers through new initiatives in this year’s budget, in Access Canberra and WorkSafe ACT, including additional WorkSafe ACT inspectors and changes to the role of the Work Safety Commissioner.
The amendment I move today ensures that the government remains committed to the principles of protecting health and safety and that government procurement is
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